PIERRE BONNARD (1867 - 1947), “Still Life with Guelder Roses”, 1892 (retouched 1929). Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri US.
Pierre Bonnard belonged to the French avant-garde group known as Les Nabis, although he always claimed his independence. In 1892, he painted “Still Lie with Guelder Roses” in his Nabi style, with flattened dimensions and compositions that reflected his deep appreciation for Japanese prints. In 1929, Bonnard returned to the painting and added dabs of paint to the flowers to give them more dimensionality, which spoke to his personal style of that later date. This gentle still life ended up in the collection of David David-Weill, the Jewish French-American head of the Lazard-Frères banking house. In 1943, the Nazis looted about 2,000 pieces from David-Weill’s extensive and exquisite art collection in Paris, including this work. The looted artworks were shipped to salt mines in Austria for storage to wait out the war; they were recovered there in 1945 by the Allies’ Monuments Men. The Bonnard painting was returned to David David-Weill, who had escaped from France and settled in the US, in 1946. His heirs eventually sold it to another collector, who gifted it to the Nelson Atkins Museum in 2004.
PIERRE BONNARD (1867 - 1947), “Still Life with Guelder Roses”, 1892 (retouched 1929). Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri US.
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